Islamset - Fate of Bank Deposited Embryos

"The Islamic Vision of Some Medical Practices"

FATE OF BANK DEPOSITED EMBRYOS
Dr. Abdullah Basalamah
Professor & Chairman of Gynaecology & Obstetrics Department,Faculty of Medicine & Medical Sciences,
King Abdul-Aziz University,
Saudi Arabia

DEEMEST MAN THAT HE IS TO BE LEFT UNCONTROLLED? WAS HE NOT A SPERM OF EMISSION.

Man's voyage from one cell to 16 cells in the laboratory takes about 4 - 5 days (and from one cell to 6 billion cells (the pregnancy period) about 283 days.

It has been medically (i. e. scientifically) agreed to call the period of Man's uterine growth since the fertilized ovum starts to divide until the end of the first 8 weeks of life "Embryo», and to call it during the rest of pregnancy period "Fetus»..!

The reason is that the (embryo) during its uterine growth passes through two important stages of formation: during the first, which takes 8 weeks, the embryo is in a state of formation, shaping and continuous growth of cells...! Looking at it in this stage one would find a cluster of cavity and tubal tissue (like a clot that turns into a lump of flesh later)... of no perfect human feature!

The most important anatomical feature of this stage is the presence of the neural groove which is the beginning of the nervous system formation in the embryo, after this stage (i. e. after the stage of the first eight weeks) the embryo starts to grow differently so that when looking at it one can recognize the figures of a human being starting to grow. This is described in the Qur'anic verse concerning creation and development in the uterus:

THEREAFTER WE BROUGHT HIM FORTH AS ANOTHER CREATURE. BLEST THEN BE ALLAH, THE BEST OF CREATORS.

The first stage of the embryo's uterine growth (i. e. the first few days and weeks) is the most serious stage in the life of a human being. Anything that is not normal of this stage may lead to malformation and an immense change in the human appearance. Thus, we can say that the embryo is a human being during the first 6 - 8 weeks of its life - be it in the uterus or in a test tube in an in vitro fertilization laboratory.

It is worth mentioning that the Japanese date man's age from the beginning of pregnancy (fertilization), i. e. starting from the time it is an embryo in its mother's abdomen...!

When does life begin?

Life exists even before the formulation of an embryo, for, as we know, it exists in both the spermatozoon and the ovum before they unite.

In a previous paper I showed that there is a difference between the existence of life and the breathing of spirit. When a mother starts to feel the embryo's movements, this is not a sign of the start of life, but a sign that the limbs of the infant have become strong enough to produce echoes in the mother's body as it moves..!

The possibility that the embryo develops a feeling of its mother during the first few weeks of pregnancy (i. e. when the neural groove starts growing after 16 - 18 days from fertilization) does not necessarily prove that the embryo has become a perfect human being (with spirit already breathed into it) for feeling exists even in plants.

In my opinion:

A human being inside the uterus passes through a primary cell stage, then a stage of a perfect human being, then the stage of spirit being breathed. However, with the present limitations I cannot elaborate more on this point!!

Sanctity of Embryos

The Islamic Sharia has secured the right to life for embryos, and prohibited harming them; and Sharia has in this respect, provided well known rules protecting embryos from being tampered with by ways of abortion or killing.

Some of the pertinent Sharia rules are:

1. Islam has legislated an indemnity for causing abortion called "ghurra» when abortion is induced prior to the fourth month of pregnancy; ghurra is 1/10 of an adult diyah i. e. bloodmoney, while the indemnity for causing abortion after the fourth month is a full diyah; the indemnity is to be paid by the person who induced abortion to the legal heir (s) of the embryo...!

The question that crops up here is:

Is Ghurra applicable to the person who spoils surplus embryos in the laboratory??

2. If a man dies leaving a pregnant wife behind, the disposal of his estate may not be effected until pregnancy is carried to term and the share of the baby is allocated...!

By analogy, should shares of surplus embryos preserved in banks be allocated as well until their fate is decided??

3. If a pregnant woman aborts, regardless of the embryo's stage of growth, and the aborted embryo showed a sign of life (the signs of life as defined by our reverend Ulama, this embryo shall inherit of its legal ancestors who die later to occurrence of preganancy; and if this embryo dies, its estate shall go to the legal heir (s).

In fact, the tolerant Sharia has protected embryos, for it provides for the embryo's right to ghurra were if it zere in the earliest stage of growth, for it was said that, « If a woman discharges a lump or blood or anything else; that if shown to reliable people, and they witness it contained something of a created human being or the beginning of it which if carried to term would become a perfect human being, the perpetrator shall be (liable).» Consequently it is therefore evident that Sharia guarantees the right of embryo from the first moment, in the division stage, even if it starts in a test tube or a (petri dish) in the laboratory...!!

It is as Imam Al- Ghazali, May Allah have mercy on his soul, put it: «In such doing there is a crime against an existing «being» for whom there are certain phases. The first is when the sperm is in the uterus and mixes with the woman's fluid and becomes ready to receive life, Ruining it is a crime, and if the sperm becomes a clot, the crime assumes graver proportions... etc.»

By his correct way of thinking, Imam Al -Ghazali could go even beyond what we are tackling today, that is fate of surplus or frozen embryos, which come to a certain stage of growth in the laboratory, i. e. the morular stage (Al-tutah) or a little before it.

Embryo Banks

Human embryos were first deposited in banks in 1976 at Oldham District Hospital, as mentioned by Dr. Edwards in his essay published in the World Medical Journal, Feb. 1986.

For a long time before that animal embryos were preserved in embryo banks and sperm banks, established originally for animal husbandry and the success achieved in this field encouraged scientists to apply the same procedures to the treatment of human infertility!!

The need became pressing for frozen embryo banks, when laboratories started to have surplus of embryos after in vitro fertilization started.

In the procedure of in vitro fertilization, doctors and scientists used to extract one ovum from the woman's ovary, then artifically inseminate it in the laboratory and when the first stage of human life is formend they transfer it into the uterus. This technique led to a limited Success of in vitro fertilization: therefore new techniques were devised, i. e. chemical induction of ovulation by drugs. This technique produced more than one ovum; and it has become possible lately to extract 4 - 6 or more ova every time ovulation is induced. It has become possible now to in vitro fertilize 4 - 6 ova every time and, thus, have 4 -6 embryos. Usually, only 3 embryos are implanted into the woman's uterus while the rest are kept frozen in the bank. For it has been found that the implantation of 3 embryos at a time rather than one leads to better chances of pregnancy: for, in most cases, one of three implanted embryos will continue growing. If a larger number af embryes gets implanted the risk of miscarriage increases.

Embryo banks are nothing but a refrigerator or a small chemical room in which liquid nitrogen is used for cooling purposes.

Cooling is used to freeze tissues and cells completely since organic reactions stop in frozen tissues. When these tissues or embryos are to be used, the temperature is raised gradually so that chemical reactions restart or rather life returns to them.

The Fate of Bank Embryos

Every in vitro fertilization center all over the world, including the Islamic world, has, no doubt, an embryo bank in its laboratory.

The usage (or fate) of the embryos preserved in those banks can be summed up in the following:

1. Replacement those embryos, or some of them, back into the mother's uterus (if the previous attempt fails); because as mentioned above 4 - 6 ova are fertilized every time, then 3 of them are injected the first time, and the rest is injected if pregnancy does not occur after the first injection.

2. The embryos can be injected after a period of time and after the woman has given birth to her first pregnancy. Thus the doctor will have available for use ready embryos saved in the bank from the previous operation. These embryos can be preserved for many years and whenever the husband and wife, or the wife only in the West, decides to have another baby, the ready embryos are «cashed» from the bank. It has actually happened that a wife, after her husband had died, requested to use the embyos she had frozen in the bank..!!

The question that imposes itself in such a case is:

How can we calculate the age of the human being that was a frozen embryo for a number of years, then was released, and started to grow, and assumed an active role in life??

3. The third use of frozen embryos - nowadays - is to donate or sell them to another woman. So the embryos are taken out of the freezer and put into the other woman's uterus, or the hired uterus (surrogate uterus). It was said, in this respect, that some in vitro fertilization centers try to make use of the surplus embryos by mixing them with the embryos of another woman under treatment: or when returning the embryos to the woman they return her embryos and probably add to them one or two of the embryos deposited in the bank so that the chance of successful pregnancy becomes better.

4. The fourth usage of surplus embryos deposited in banks has aroused a great controversy - moral and secular controversy, not Sharia - wise: I mean the use of surplus embryos in experiments..!! Making scientific experiments on embryos has become widely demanded by the scientific circles and has, in the west, raised a serious moral, social and judicial issue. The fate of surplus embryos, no doubt, has attracted the attention of the world today and it is a must that the Muslim scientists declare their technical opinion.

Though the first usage of surplus embryos (i. e. implanting them once again into the mother's uterus) has become acceptable scientifically and socially and probably by the Sharia as well, yet I believe that preserving embryos in banks for a long period of time will result in many prohibitions, the least of which would be for a wife to request implantation of her embryos after her husband's death - for as it is well known, the death of husband annuls the marriage. In addition, keeping embryos in a bank exposes them to mixing and confusion with others.

If success of the operation can never be guaranteed without having surplus of embryos they should then be used by the natural mother immediately, during the existence of marriage, and with the approval of the two parties concerned. Surplus embryos should not be thrown away as garbage or left to die, they should end into the mother's uterus, and it is up to Allah, the Mighty Lord, to determine their fate...!

I do not accept experimenting with embryos - for though it will lead science and scientists to medical discoveries yet the inviolability of Man must be kept, even when he is no more than one cell. In Britain, an ad hoc committe, formed particularly for this issue, called Warnock's Committee, allowed experiments on embryos during the first 18 days of pregnancy, i.e. before the neural groove starts forming. There is still, however, a wide opposition against experimenting with human embryos.

The other usages of embryos, like implanting them into a different woman, are prohibited by the Sharia.

What is required, now, is:

To focus on the Sharia issues in this respect in order to clarify them for everybody; as the desire for reproduction added to the fact that many Muslim families lack the knowledge about related Sharia varities have misled some into the prohibited.

Conclusions

1. The surplus fertilized ova, in the in vitro fertilization process, are in fact embryos, whether according to science and to Sharia. And hence they have a sanctity that must not be violated by killing or implantation into a surrogate mother's uterus, nor should they be exposed to laboratory experiments; for such experiments might be the beginning of a human disaster.

2. Several Sharia Opinions have been issued allowing in vitro fertilization as a treatment of infertility, provided that it is performed while the marriage is valid and only between husband and wife. What I wish for is to add to this Opinion items that would secure the fate of surplus embryos, for instance something to the effect that the treating doctor should not leave any surplus embryos without injecting them back into the mother's uterus and that they should not be killed or neglected; for Allah alone has the right to determine the fate of this creation. Preserving the surplus embryos in a bank may make them vulnerable to the other usages prohibited by sharia.

3. I hope that in every medical center, in the Islamic world, where artificial insemination, whether internal or external (in vitro), is practiced, an ad hoc committee would be formed to supervise and follow up, to care for surplus embryos and to protect muslim families from being trapped into the concomitant prohibited practice.